More than knee deep: Former excise minister remanded in Ehtesab Commission’s custody

PPP’s Liaqat Shabab handed over for 13 days.

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on Friday obtained a 13-day physical remand of former excise and taxation minister Liaqat Shabab. He was arrested a day earlier for allegedly accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income.

The accused was produced before Ehtesab Court Judge Subhan Sher to obtain his physical remand for further investigation.

Additional Deputy Prosecutor Qazi Babar Arshad produced the suspect and stated that the commission had obtained credible information regarding Shabab’s assets. The accountability body believed these were beyond his legitimate sources of income during his tenure as provincial minister.

Arshad requested the court to give custody of the suspect so they could extract further information. The court accepted the plea and remanded Shabab in the commission’s custody for 13 days.

Shabab was the provincial excise and taxation minister in the previous government between 2008 and 2012. The commission raided the house of Shabab in Nowshera on May 19, but could not arrest him.

“His assets include plots, houses, bank accounts, agricultural land and vehicles. Also, there have been transactions via various bank accounts,” a press release issued on Thursday by the commission stated. “His arrest was essential for the ongoing investigation,” it added. The former minister had earlier approached Peshawar High Court against the commission’s enquiry, saying it was illegal as were the raids on his Nowshera residence.

Also, the commission arrested the owner of Peshawar’s Iqra University, Obaidur Rehman, for fraudulently acquiring government land measuring 20 kanals near Bagh-e-Naran sports complex in Hayatabad, Phase-II.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2015.